Trypanosoma cruzi: characterization of reinfection and search for tissue tropism in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

Tissue tropism, the role of reinfection in the development of Chagas' disease, and the selection of subpopulations of Trypanosoma cruzi were evaluated in hamsters inoculated with the VIC strain of T. cruzi. Adult allogeneic male hamsters were inoculated once or reinoculated by the intraperitoneal route up to four times with 2000 blood trypomastigotes. Animals were studied by blood culture, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular techniques (PCR and low-stringency single specific primer-PCR). Homogeneity of the T. cruzi population observed in different tissues suggests that selective tropism of the VIC strain extends only to various muscle tissues in hamsters and that reinfection is not a factor in the development of the inflammatory processes, although it may aggravate it, possibly due to an increase in tissue parasitism, which might induce autoimmune mechanisms. Reinfection did not induce selection of subpopulations in the tissue or in the blood. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).